Speaker reserves decision on JD (S) in Kerala

In fresh troubles for the JD(S) faction that has dissociated from LDF in Kerala, Assembly Speaker K Radhakrishnan on Saturday said he was not going to rush to a decision on its plea to be considered as a separate bloc in the House, since party's national leadership had opposed that.

In fresh troubles for the JD(S) faction that has dissociated from LDF in Kerala, Assembly Speaker K Radhakrishnan on Saturday said he was not going to rush to a decision on its plea to be considered as a separate bloc in the House, since party's national leadership had opposed that.

A decision on the issue would be taken only after studying the matter in detail in the light of the amendment to theAnti-defection Act which gave prominence to the decision of the leadership of the party concerned,Radhakrishnan said in reply to queries at a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram.

Amid reports of split,the leader of the five-member JD (S)legislature party KP Mohanan recently submitted a letter toSpeaker seeking separate bloc status in the House, severing links with LDF.While three of the MLAs backed this, theremaining two legislators had refused to be part of the move.

Meanwhile,the situation had been complicated further with JD (S) national president HD Deve Gowda sending a fax messageto the Speaker that his party would continue to be part of LDF.

According to Radhakrishnan, as per the amendments to the Act, the decision of the party leadership would get primeconsideration since the symbol for contesting the polls had been allotted by it. He, however, said he would hear allsides before taking a decision on the matter.